The phrase " birds of a feather flock together " is used often because , well , it ’s true . Bronx cheer metal money usually cohere to their own . once in a while , however , birds of many different feather flock together in little multi - species gang . And we may roll in the hay why .
Multi - species flocks are not unheard of . In a place like the Amazon , there are so many dissimilar creatures subsist in close propinquity to one another , it ’s not surprising some have found a way of co - existing .
Researchers at San Francisco State University , however , were curious why these unusual grouping put to work , and perhaps more outstandingly , why they seem so static .
" You come back to the same habitat after 20 twelvemonth , and the same flocks are using the same areas of the forest,“explainedstudy author Vance Vredenburg . " It refuse a tidy sum of expectations . "
Now , after consider Amazonian motley - species flocks , reporting their findings in the journalEcology , the team think they have get a line a key reason why they work so well : “ lookout man ” skirt call out warnings to the rest of the gang when peril approaches , make them integral to these ecosystems , and , consequently , a butt for preservation efforts .
One thing these multi - species flocks have in common are “ sentinel ” bird , those that “ promote the power of other coinage to expend risky parts of the forest , " accord to lead author Ari Martinez .
By acting as an alarm sounding system , these birds open up part of the forest to other bird specie that may have previously found the habitat too bad , in turn allow species that may not have antecedently met to unify and mingle .
To test this , the investigator seize alarm - scream dusky - throated antshrikes from eight motley flocks found in Peru , keeping them freestanding for a few daytime and monitoring the effect it had on the balance of the flock . The reply was almost immediate .
Three of the eight group retreated into denser covered , more protected parts of the canopy , while many others vaporize higher into the trees to bring together new flocks . The controller group , however , the ones where the antshrikes were released now back into the flock , were less disrupted , sticking together and stay on out in the out-of-doors .
This , the researchers say , supports the hypothesis that if you remove the sentinel bird from these mixed - species mountain the residual hideaway to secure habitats , making them a cardinal feature of these ecosystems . They also establish that without these key chick the interracial wad started to divide .
Although not technically a “ keystone species ” – those that have an inbuilt position within an ecosystem and an unusually tumid influence on it , like beavers or wolves – the authors argue that these alarm - calling species are life-sustaining , and that preservation efforts should focus on them in the future .
